Conditioning A New Tank

[guppy77]

hi. i have a small tank that has been running ok for 2 months. i now have bought a much bigger tank that has been running without fish for 2 weeks. could i use some of the water from my old tank to help condition my new one before i add fish. hope this makes sence. i have a fluval 3 + running in the new tank.
many thanks
john

 

[Bobtastic]

You should really do a fishless cycle b4 adding fish, but you jump start you filter by adding some filter media from your old filter into your new one.

You could also rinse out some of your filter media into a bucket of tank water (taken from you other tank) so that you get all the "goodness" floating about in it and then add it to your new tank. Make sure you have dechlorinated the water already in there. When the "gunk" and water from your old tank goes through the new filter it would establish a nice little colony of bacteria to get you started.

Saying that, I'm sure some of the more experienced member will come along and give you some good advise on what to do.

 

[kbekll]

is the new tank for the old fish to go in or for new fish ?

it would have been better for you to run the new filter in the old tank for the past 2 weeks that way you would have the bateria in the filter

i would add media from the other filter and start a new fishless cycle with a bit of the old filter meterial

if you have twin sponges in the new and old swap 1 over with the new one

 

[guppy77]

You should really do a fishless cycle b4 adding fish, but you jump start you filter by adding some filter media from your old filter into your new one.

You could also rinse out some of your filter media into a bucket of tank water (taken from you other tank) so that you get all the "goodness" floating about in it and then add it to your new tank. Make sure you have dechlorinated the water already in there. When the "gunk" and water from your old tank goes through the new filter it would establish a nice little colony of bacteria to get you started.

Saying that, I'm sure some of the more experienced member will come along and give you some good advise on what to do.

thanks. i should of mentioned that i have 2 small internal filters running in the old tank so maybe it would be better to use one of them in the new tank along side the new filter to establish a bit quicker

 

[guppy77]

is the new tank for the old fish to go in or for new fish ?

it would have been better for you to run the new filter in the old tank for the past 2 weeks that way you would have the bateria in the filter

i would add media from the other filter and start a new fishless cycle with a bit of the old filter meterial

if you have twin sponges in the new and old swap 1 over with the new one

the new tank is for the fish from my old one. the old one is very small(25lt). the new one 80lt. i only have some 4 neons,2 guppies and a very small plec in the old one. the new filter was too big to run in the old tank.

 

[Bobtastic]

the new tank is for the fish from my old one. the old one is very small(25lt). the new one 80lt. i only have some 4 neons,2 guppies and a very small plec in the old one. the new filter was too big to run in the old tank.

That sounds like a plan. You could even put some take some of the filter media (sponge or whatever) out and fit it into the new one so that it has some bacteria in it and then run it along side the other smaller filter until the new one it fully up to speed (which will take roughly 6weeks I think).

Then you could take out the smaller filter and then setup the old tank for a Betta fish!

 

[waterdrop]

Sounds good to me, good advice from Bob.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[kbekll]

right it is just a case of moving the fish and filters to the new one then

no need to cycle as you are not adding to the bio load just moving it

set it up fill it up as you normally would then get the same temps going also use some of the old water in the filling process if not all of it

open one of the two old filters once the other tank is filled and ready to run remove the media and insert it into the new filter

then gather each fish into bags would be an idea and slowly acclimatize them to the new tank

then add the other filter from the old tank in the new and then allow the fish to explore their new home

but keep an eye on the water stats after wards

 

[Bobtastic]

Oh and make sure you keep the tank out of reach of any 3 year old boys that you have in the general area.

 

[guppy77]

thanks for all your help. i now have a much better idea what to do. hope all works out

 

[pammy172]

In this case I would transfer both the filters from your current tank and also transfer all the water from the old tank over to the new and just top it up - unless the stats suggest it needs to be changed. Will be less of a shock for the fish. You could then do a % water change after a few days when it's all settled.

Run all three filters alongside each other in the new tank, switching one of the older filters off after say two weeks if water stats OK and the other off after a further two/three weeks if all OK. Then squeeze out all the gunk over the new filter inlet pipe and you should be fine. You are in effect just changing the glass surround then and everything else is as it was. Should be fine.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree that's a reasonable plan too as far as I can see.

~~waterdrop~~